£105m loss for Punch Taverns

Staffordshire pubs group Punch Taverns made a pre-tax loss of £105 million for the year to August 22.

The group, which has its headquarters in Burton upon Trent faced £166m of non-underlying charges, principally due to the capital restructuring and transition to accounting for properties at market value.

Punch says it now has a higher quality pub estate with the core estate now expected to deliver around 95 per cent of pub profits in the 2016 financial year.

Average profit per pub was up four per cent for the last year, benefitting from the disposal of non-core pubs.

Punch's property estate is externally valued at £2.09 billion.

Chief executive Duncan Garrood, said: "Since joining in June, I have undertaken a detailed review of the business and today I set out a clear plan for the future. In recent years, Punch has been at the forefront of change within the leased and tenanted pub sector. The conclusions announced today represent an evolution of our existing plan. It is also designed to address the many structural and regulatory changes impacting our market."

Since the year end, Punch completed the sale of a package of 158 non-core pubs for £53.5m and sold its 50 per cent joint venture investment in Matthew Clark for £100.7m.